U.S. Pat. No. RE34,208 teaches a swinging bob toy having three bobs on a string with the middle bob being slideable and constrained on the string between the two end bobs. This toy has been sold under the trademark Astrojax® for over 15 years, and is currently manufactured and marketed by Active People, SA of Binningen, Switzerland. There are a number of varieties of Astrojax manufactured by Active People, SA, including foam-mantled versions, light-up versions, and a version which has liquid-filled bobs where all three bobs are free to slide along the string. Players have developed a large number of tricks and maneuvers with the toy, many of which can be viewed in the tricks section of Active People's website, www.ap-club.net, or in the over 1800 player-posted videos currently on www.YouTube.com. Holding one end bob, the basic orbits are a vertical orbit, a horizontal orbit and a figure-eight pattern. Because the three bobs have the same mass, the orbits have a balanced appearance such as a symmetry in the motions or paths of the bobs. One of the basic tricks is the end-bob switch, where the held end bob is released and the orbiting end bob is grabbed. Because the bobs have the same mass, orbits after an end-bob switch have the same appearance as the orbits prior to the switch.
Another swinging bob toy with three bobs is sold online at www.freedo.info under the trademark TriThology™. The bobs of this toy are slidably constrained to a looped string by small metallic hooks or loops connected to the bobs by swivels, and so the bobs have their centers of mass displaced from the string. Holding one end bob, the basic orbits are a horizontal orbit and vertical oscillations, and there is also a horizontal orbit with superimposed vertical oscillations. Because the three bobs have the same mass, the orbits have a balanced appearance and the same motion regardless of which bob is held.
A swinging bob toy with two sliding bobs on a tethering means is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,863. This toy is sold online at www.aroundsquare.com under the trademarks Dubulo™ and Monkey Knuckles™, and videos showing its use can also be found on www.YouTube.com. Although the bobs have throughbores through which the string passes so the bobs can slide on the string, the throughbores of Monkey Knuckles™ are straighter and provide more friction than the flared bores of Astrojax® bobs, so Monkey Knuckles™ bobs do not slide as easily as Astrojax® bobs. This allows tricks and maneuvers where friction plays a role in the stability of the motion.
With each of the above-described swinging bob toys, hundreds if not thousands of different types of orbits, tricks and moves are possible. While some of the moves are performable on more than one of the above-described swinging bob toys, the particular construction of each toy provides numerous possibilities not available to the other constructions. In each of the above-described swinging bob toys the bobs are all of the same mass, and in each of the above-described swinging bob toys the geometry/construction is not alterable. It should also be noted that optical tricks or illusions are not facilitated by the construction of the above-described swinging bob toys. Furthermore, it should be noted that in the above-described swinging bob toys all the sliding bobs have the same friction of sliding, i.e., “slideability,” and the slideabilities of the bobs are not alterable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy with new modes of play.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy with an alterable geometry/construction.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy with an alterable number of bobs.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy with new types of moves, tricks, motions and/or orbits, and particularly, balanced orbits, i.e., orbits where the motions or paths of the bobs have a symmetry, such as a two-fold or mirror symmetry.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy which provides new visual effects, such as optical and/or magical illusions.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a swinging bob toy where at least one bob which is reversibly separable into two bobs.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention is to provide a swinging bob toy with at least one bob which is reversibly separable into two bobs which can look substantially the same as each other or as the orginal non-separated bob.
Also it is an object of the present invention is to provide a swinging bob toy where at least one bob is reversibly separable into two bobs of roughly equal mass.
Also it is an object of the present invention is to provide a swinging bob toy where at least one bob is reversibly separable into two bobs which have an altered slideability, i.e., a slideability different from that of the unseparated bob.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and will be obvious from the description or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the claims.